Enslaved maid case: India awaits final verdict

New Delhi: India will await the final verdict in the case relating to the recommendation of a US judge that an Indian diplomat should give $1.5 million as compensation for "barbaric treatment" of her maid.

Sources said on Friday that it was "premature" to comment on the issue as the compensation is recommendatory in nature.

Neena Malhotra, a former Consul at Consulate General of India in New York, should give $1.5 million for her "barbaric treatment" to her maid Shanti Gurung, a US judge had said on Thursday.

Sources said on Friday that it was "premature" to comment on the issue as the compensation is recommendatory in nature.

The proposed award includes $500,000 for the "emotional distress" inflicted on Gurung by Malhotra and her husband Jogesh, The New York Post said, quoting the judge.

"It is premature for us to react. It is only a recommendation to the judge. We will have to wait till the process is over," sources said in New Delhi.

"The final judgement is awaited," they said.

Manhattan federal Magistrate Judge Frank Maas was quoted as having written in his recommendation that the Malhotras clearly induced their ex-maid to "work without pay by seizing her passport and visa, restricting her ability to leave their apartment, and constantly warning her that if she traveled on her own without their permission, she would be arrested, beaten, raped and sent back to India as 'cargo'".

His recommendations are subject to approval by Judge Victor Marrero, who is overseeing the case.